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Ferlo Sees Tax Payoff In Casino Downtown May 13, 2003
State Sen. Jim Ferlo says he isn't a big gambler. But the freshman Democrat from Highland Park also knows that state and city governments are suffering serious budget shortfalls, and he figures a new tax on gambling revenue could raise considerable cash for depleted public coffers.
Yesterday, he introduced a bill in Harrisburg that would legalize one casino in Downtown Pittsburgh. The casino could be on a riverboat or on land. The bill would authorize a casino only in Downtown Pittsburgh, but Ferlo said he's willing to add other cities, such as Philadelphia.
"If we give visitors, tourists and convention-goers a casino, they will stay Downtown," Ferlo said. "It will give us a 'first-day attraction' and will add jobs."
A full-fledged casino, with slot machines, roulette wheels, dice, blackjack and other games would go far beyond Gov. Ed Rendell's proposal to legalize slot machines at state horse racing tracks. A Rendell spokeswoman yesterday said the governor prefers his own plan to Ferlo's.
Ferlo's bill comes as discussion is heating up about new forms of gambling in Pennsylvania. The state Senate is preparing this week to debate legislation for slot machines at racetracks.
And the powerful Republican state House Speaker John Perzel of Philadelphia told The Philadelphia Inquirer last week he thinks Philadelphia could support as many as three land-based casinos, while Pittsburgh could support two.
"Do it in the two big cities," Perzel told the newspaper. "Generally, most of Pennsylvania thinks that the sin cities are Philly and Pittsburgh." Rendell has advocated legalizing up to 3,000 slot machines at the state's four existing horse racing tracks and as many as four new ones.
Existing tracks are The Meadows in Washington County and near Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Wilkes-Barre. Tracks in Erie and Chester have been licensed but not yet built. Several proposals have been submitted for new thoroughbred tracks in the Pittsburgh area, including one in the Hays section of the city.
Rendell wants to use the state's share of gambling taxes from slot machines to cut local property taxes, increase state funding for public education and spur economic development.
Ferlo supports Rendell's idea for slots at the racetracks, but wants to go further, saying a new tax on gambling revenue at The Meadows would help Washington County but not Pittsburgh, which has a $60 million budget deficit.
"In discussions with a number of senators from both sides of the aisle," Ferlo said, "they support slot machines at the racetracks, but they're also willing to look at other options to assist in economic development in the areas that are outside the counties that currently have racetracks."
Ferlo said he didn't know how much money could be generated by putting a casino in Downtown Pittsburgh or how much the revenue should be taxed. Measures to legalize slot machines at racetracks generally call for about half the revenue to go to track owners and horse owners, with the other half going to state, municipal and county governments and the local school district.
Ferlo said half of the public share of any casino revenue should go to the state "to support the governor's plan for reducing property taxes" and 20 percent would go to the Sports & Exhibition Authority, a city-county agency that's building the new David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
Another 20 percent would go to the City of Pittsburgh, to offset its current budget deficit. The city is now seeking two new taxes, one on payrolls and one on poured drinks, to eliminate the deficit.
The final 10 percent would be split -- 5 percent for human service agencies to provide counseling for people with drug, alcohol and gambling addictions, and 5 percent to the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership to promote and beautify Downtown.
Ferlo contended that there is already a lot of gambling, "legal and illegal," in the state, "whether we like it or not." "People are already voting with their feet and taking thousands of dollars out of Pennsylvania" to states like West Virginia and Delaware, where racetracks already have slot machines, and to New Jersey, which has casinos in Atlantic City, he said.
Ferlo's proposal drew criticism from Evan Stoddard, a Duquesne University administrator who heads No Dice, a Pittsburgh-based group opposed to gambling.
"Do we think Downtown isn't dead enough already?" he said.
"Do we want more dead space in Downtown than we now have? Do we really
think people who come to the Golden Triangle to patronize a casino will
go anywhere else in Downtown? If anyone thinks that, they are truly in
a dream world."
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